Qatar telecommunications company Ooredoo held a VIP charity auction for 50 special telephone numbers on Tuesday night, as part of its on-going corporate social responsibility work.

VIP guests and customers were invited to bid for their favourite number from a range of 50 special numbers auctioned at the Four Seasons Hotel in Doha.

The auction, which is an annual event, experienced its strongest ever demand as customers joined in the spirit of giving back to the community, and bid for the VIP numbers.

The overall figure raised on the night was a massive QR 30,167,000, with the highest auctioned number selling at a world record-breaking QR 10, 100,000. The previous world auction record was QR 10 million for the number 66666666.

This is Ooredoo’s ninth year of organising special number auctions, and since 2005, the company has donated millions of Qatari Riyals to charity. The proceeds of the events go into a general charity fund, which is then distributed to humanitarian causes in Qatar, or as emergency aid for those in need around the world.

The most desirable special numbers were those that started with the same number, had many of the same numbers, or had parallel digits such as ’234′. Previous Ooredoo auctions found that simpler numbers sold for more due to memorability and status factors.